Story 1: overseas

Chi Ngo, 28, branding director for Dai Viet Refrigeration Engineering Company, was a student at RMIT University before she left for Victoria University in Australia. 

She had experience in studying in an ‘international environment’. However, she could not integrate well into the new environment after she arrived in Australia. It took her half a year to adapt to the new circumstances.

“Sometimes I burst into tears because of the homesickness,” she said.

The majority of students, before leaving Vietnam, imagine they will live in a perfect environment because overseas study consultancy firms overstated the good living conditions. But this is not the reality.

“Sometimes 4-5 students have to share a room, just enough for one bed and a small table. I feel that they even don’t have enough air to breathe,” she said.

Meanwhile, many students have to work and send money to their families in Vietnam for debt payment. They have to work on holidays and weekends and have to take hard jobs.

Chi said that after overcoming some difficulties students usually quickly integrate into the community and learn useful knowledge, including being independent and solving problems.

Story 2: return to Vietnam

Vo Thi Minh An holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Management from Stirling University, Scotland, and a bachelor's degree in International Relations and French Studies at Mount Holyoke University in the US. She won Outstanding Commitment Awards from the Clinton Global Initiatives Foundation and her name was mentioned twice in Clinton’s speech for the microfinance project for families of Agent Orange victims.

Even though many Vietnamese are psychologically prepared before studying abroad, many students still have problems during their stay and after their return to Vietnam.

Obtaining such great achievements, An believed that she would easily get a good job with high pay and good promotion opportunities.

But she could not find a job within four months. Later, she took a job as a copywriter for an international school.

But she decided that she needed to take action. She proposed assigning her to run a marketing campaign for a new major of the school, Fashion & Textiles Merchandising, and the work went very successfully.

An registered to attend a training course for a master’s degree which gave her the opportunity to meet a friend, who later introduced her to a good job at British American Tobacco, the beginning of a series of breakthroughs in her career.

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